York

Bed and Breakfast is a wonderful thing. I can confirm that B&B is the way to go. Not only is it significantly cheaper than hotels, the service is better, the breakfast are free, the rooms are bigger, the owners are friendlier and yes the service really is better. We decided to try a couple and I am so impressed.

We are in York, the ancient capital of southern England. Apparently. I thought that was Winchester but I’m a bit bias. We had our first experience of Park and Ride today. The B&B owner, Janet, (we are of course on first name terms now) suggested it was the best way to get into the city. I discovered that a ‘bendy-bus’ had an engine in the back and was a rear wheel drive, it all makes sense to me now. Anne was less impressed, I can’t think why.

We walked around York looking at the sites, the Shambles, Whit Ma What Ma Street, the Minster, all the rest and I suggested to Anne we try the National Railway Museum. As the morning had already demonstrated, Anne is not terribly keen on all things mechanical. She tentatively suggested that I go to the museum and she wander around the shops. Tricky to judge the correct response at this point. However, when I said yes the look on her face was a picture. You would have thought I had offered her an afternoon at a chocolate factory. I couldn’t tell whether she was happy for me to go to the museum or just happy to get rid of me.

Either way, I was in railway heaven for a couple of hours. It’s not that I like trains particularly, but the engineering is phenomenal. Forget about microchips and need to make everything smaller and thinner, take a look at the mechanics of the engines and the power, phew! I couldn’t stop smiling.

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